Personal Hook Examples: Open With Your Own Story

Personal hook formulas

• "I'm [situation], and I think I'm [admission]". Example: "I'm single, and I think I'm the problem"
• "I knew [thing was coming], and I just kept [doing the opposite]". Example: "I knew summer was coming, and I just kept eating"
• "[6 weeks] of [using a product] on my [problem]". Example: "6 weeks of using kerastase on my 👨‍🦲 bald spot"
• "Things I wish I knew as a [role]". Example: "Things I wish I knew as a first time mom 🥹"

Three personal hooks to start with

Where these hooks come from

65 from TikTok, 40 from Instagram Reels and 18 from LinkedIn. By delivery: 53 on-screen text, 51 spoken, 18 LinkedIn post openers and 1 spoken and on-screen. Every one comes from a real post; the library has no view counts, so they are not ranked by results. To see one platform only, browse TikTok hooks or Instagram hooks.

All 123 personal hooks

Every card shows the hook, where it was posted and how it was delivered, with a Copy button and a Remix in Hook Generator link.

Some of these also carry another style label, most often Hot Take (9), Expert (8) and Chaotic (6).

• I'm single, and I think I'm the problem

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• Working remote makes you lose touch with reality. I've now been working remote for about a year, and I sometimes don't leave my house for WEEKS.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• When I started my career in marketing, I had no idea what I was doing…

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• I'm solo building a solo startup from scratch and letting the internet decide whether it lives or dies.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Hi, my name is Alexa. I'm 27 years old, and I just quit my job to build a cooking app that I believe will be bigger than Uber Eats. Welcome to Sizzle.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• If you're seeing this, you're gonna make it. I know you're gonna make it

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• I now understand why you cannot replace a wind breaker with a rain coat

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• I used to always film vlogs and they would flop... i'm like no... ok, nobody's interested, ok cool. BUT THEN, I saw this girl, I really wished I saved the video, but if this is you - show yourself

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• When you meet someone who has the real thing, you're like, oh, that's it - that's what charisma means

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Work was *very* stressful today... but you came home to nothing but peace.

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Hi, my name is Lily, I'm 26 years old, and I just quit my job to build and app that was inspired by a terrible break up I went through 2 years ago

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• I was on a mountain in Japan like two days ago

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• If you give me like 3 minutes I will remove the blocks you have surrounding posting content on social media

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Everything in life is a reframe.

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• I promise you one thing. If you put your mind to it, and you work hard, and you never give up, and most importantly, you don't listen to rejection, you can achieve anything in life that you want.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• The easiest thing in life is to give up.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Thank god I'm a girl bc how do you explain this feeling to a man?

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• My biggest red flag is feeling like I can't date anyone until I become the woman of my dreams and have everything figured out

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• If there is one thing in this life that I can guarantee, is that you will get more opportunities when you become visible. Visibility equals opportunities. Visibility equals outcomes.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• I don't know if any other ugly woman or ugly people can relate to this experience, but my entire life I have felt inhuman or less than human

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• 6 weeks of using kerastase on my 👨‍🦲 bald spot

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• How do I explain to people that one of the reasons I get triggered when they start depending on me for too much is because my inner child gets angry that I had to figure it all out by myself & I feel like they should too

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Been so busy thinking about the future, almost forgot i'm in the middle of what i used to pray for

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Honestly the best way to use social media, if you're like a regular person, like me and you girl, is not as a business, but to use it like it is your internet scrapbook of your life

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Nobody talks about how suffocating it feels to be living somewhere you know you don't belong

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Does having soft features mean that you'll forever be bound to only being cute rather than hot?

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Makeup on extremely pale skin is so hard, because you can see every single mistake like a stain on a white t-shirt, so this is an EXTREMELY pale skin makeup tutorial

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• I got engaged at 20, and got married at 21. If you're scared of marriage, this is for you

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• This video is gonna reach the girl who really needs to hear this. Girl, if you feel really lost right now, like you have no direction, I want you to listen to this video, I'm not even gonna use a hashtag, because you're meant to hear this.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Another day leaving my daughter I took care of every single day for 10 hours. Tf is this planet bro

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• My wife keeps telling me that I need to mix this song

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Just wrote this hook... what DJ do you think it'd be good for?

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• I think I'm going crazy in this world, because.. sometimes I do wish I didn't know everything that I know. I look at people who live their little matrix life.. like ohh it's Annie's birthday next week, and Thanksgiving is coming up.. you know? Just the little matrix calendar, you're not questioning the purpose of life.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• I've never felt like a pretty girl, ever. And, throughout the majority of my life, people always have had something to say about the way that I look

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• me tryna decide if i should go to sleep or not cause i love sleeping but i love my free time at night even more

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Remember while you're doubting yourself, someone else is looking at u wondering how you do it all

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• The amount of locking in and discipline it actually takes to change your life is crazy

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• It's Cherry Chocolate Season 🍒🍫

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• I wish someone told me this sooner: you will be rewarded in the highest form when you just do. It's never about perfection or how hard you try, it's just about your decision to show up as you are.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• I am humbled by the number of times that I have to learn this, because it is the cheat code to basically all of life but everything is energy.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• I'm not sure who needs to hear this but I trust the algorithm to deliver it to the right people: if you're feeling lost, that means you're in uncharted territory, which is exactly what you've been trying to get to. It's okay.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Imagine a cozy morning with a hot cup of coffee in hand and a tray of hot soft pumpkin cinnamon rolls straight from the oven. I don't know about you, but that sounds just about perfect to me!

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• an insomniac's guide to sleep essentials

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• I don't know why I feel comfortable sharing this on the internet, but I'm gonna show you how terrifying I look when I go to sleep

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• This is a 30 second video of me trying to convince you to get a hard water filter in your shower

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• When you put a water filter on your bathroom sink after realizing that's what was damaging your skin 🤌😳

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• This game looks like it's going to become one of the coziest games ever to exist

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Let's talk about all of my favorite haircare products, because these are literally a game-changer if you want to have the silkiest and healthiest hair ever

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Haircare products I will ALWAYS repurchase

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• 5 haircare non negotiables I do every week

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• I don't know a lot, but one of the most powerful lessons that I've learned in my life, is that if you want life stresses, struggles, and tribulations to ultimately feel a little bit easier to deal with, you have to do intentionally hard things.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• the power of lashes

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• How old were y'all when your mom started letting y'all get nails? because my mom was not having that! That is not the case for my client here, she is 15 and is getting the most blinged out nails

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• NAIL TECH Day in The Life + prices

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Honestly, this is probably one of my favorite glams that I've done so far (keep watching to see how I've done it)

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• 3 things I did and still do that helped me go from being miserable and crying about my life to now being excited and fulfilled

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• It's crazy how fast people's health can drastically improve when that flip switches and they stop self-sabotaging and they can fully dedicate themselves to their health

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Watch this asmr crushing so my dad can pay the rent

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• What's in my bag ASMR

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• 🌿ASMR🌿 Let's open a fresh Nivea Lotion together

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• ASMR you can actually sleep to | 8 minutes of personal attention

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Games that ruined every other game for me, they're so good that I don't know if anything else will ever come close. Which is a wonderful thing, because it's amazing to find your empire top tier games, but it's also a really sad thing, because you're like - will I ever have this feeling ever again about another game?

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Here are all the games I have over 300 hours of play time in. What it says about me, I don't know, but here they are

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• No one prepares you for how financially vulnerable stay-at-home moms really are

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• Took me 10 years to learn this piece. You'll be scrolling on in 0.5 seconds.

  Personal · TikTok · on-screen text

• When you have a fast mind, fast nervous system, you are naturally philosophical, you don't really buy into a lot of victimhood bullshit, and you're also highly intelligent and sensitive, a lot of nervous system and healing advice is probably not super appropriate for you, and I wanna break this down.

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• Story time on the month long relationship I had with a billionaire, part 1

  Personal · TikTok · spoken

• A transformation I do not regret!

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• How life feels being the most hated person online

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• This is something we could never understand in the US

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• What I ate today as a fatty

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken + on-screen text

• "I don't know how to start 🥺"

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Countries I felt unsafe in as a female solo traveler

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• If you've ever secretly unbuttoned your jeans at dinner and hoped no one noticed - this is for you

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• I knew summer was coming, and I just kept eating

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• You know what's made my life genuinely 20x better and easier and more free flowing? It's detaching, bro.

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• Almost forgot that this was the whole point

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• My current couch snack as a nutritionist and busy mom (15 weeks postpartum)

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• My girlfriend and I tried a whole week without eating ultra-processed food to see if it made a difference to how we felt

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• what moving on to your next chapter feels like

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Me when I get the random urge to lock in and change my life

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• lowkey shouldn't be in a relationship bc how do i explain to them sometimes i just don't wanna talk for 2 days

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• This and my ex coworker

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• This is me in the gym after a workout, in great lighting, and this is me just standing in the middle of my living room.

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• Let me de-influence you, as a 28 year old Londoner

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Tell me you are dating a danish boy... without telling me that you are dating a danish boy

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Finally getting the hair that matches your personality >>

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Just a friendly reminder.. to start the damn thing

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• What do you do when you feel behind in life? This is lesson #23.

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• 5 reasons that make me wildly unsuccessful on Instagram... and I am ok with it

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• I'm making every country's breakfast until I find one I wanna eat every single morning.

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• 3 things everyone should know how to clean in their apartment

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• Things guys need to do before having a girl over

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Here's what you're gonna make if you don't know how to cook

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• POV: Your wife can see everything even when she's not in the same room

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Dinners you'll actually make

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• War is over (finally got my first full time job offer)

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• This is a very niche video. This video is exclusively for the girls who have always known they were meant for a big life but don't know exactly what that is.

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• The world rewards those who are willing to be bad at something long enough to become great at it.

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Being ready is a myth. You start. You suck. You figure it out. You get better

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• What a privilege it is to wake up and to have another day to improve yourself.

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Things I wish I knew as a first time mom 🥹

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Life is short, buy the bike

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Found the perfect green for fall...

  Personal · Instagram Reels · on-screen text

• Do you know what fucking sucks? I made more money selling cartoon pictures of shit and monkeys than actually trying to help people

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• Spend the day with me as a 24 year old product manager while I tell you how I got here from a Tier 3 college with no MBA

  Personal · Instagram Reels · spoken

• Just a quick shout out to content creators! If you see less impressions and lower reach, it's probably not just you.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• My 5 biggest struggles as a new manager were…

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• I’ll never forget the time I bombed a client pitch in front of 12 stakeholders and had to rebuild their trust from scratch

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• Work from Thailand if you want. Switch off your Slack notifications to focus. Leave that work meeting early if you aren't needed. Take a few hours off to do Personal admin. Schedule that skiing holiday. As long as you get the work done, I genuinely could not care less.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• Terrified? Absolutely. Ready? Not really. Worth it? 100%.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• When I started off in my career in marketing, I was making under 75K.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• Most people think LinkedIn is just for resumes. But it’s so much more than that. Done right, it’s a platform for building your brand, growing your network, and generating leads.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• 4 years ago I took a bet.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• Negotiating a salary raise is scary. 7 lessons to negotiate your next raise:

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• A reminder to businesses: Maternity/paternity leave is not ‘a holiday’. It’s not ‘a nice break’ and it is not time off. It’s a heady cocktail of anticipation, expectation, arrival and survival.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• I boarded a 14-hour flight to Asia, 100% convinced I was going to be fired when I landed.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• I gave the biggest talk of my career this weekend. Not only was it the data science keynote, but also one of the closing speeches of the conference. And I was a nervous wreck the entire week leading up to the moment of stepping on stage.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• A simple life hack: Give more than you take.

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• If I retire tomorrow, I'll have zero regrets (a very personal post incoming)

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• The best Linkedin strategy (it costs $0 to implement too) - invest time in other people

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• My most viral LinkedIn post hit 20k likes. It wasn't even close to my best work. It took me 10 mins to write it while there are posts I take 2 hours to write that get 500 likes. That's when I thought of analyzing my posts

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

• I woke up at 6AM every morning last week to go to the gym.. and you know how many mornings I actually managed to get up and go? None 😳

  Personal · LinkedIn · post opener (text)

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